As we go through life we get/have various labels from baby to kid, to teenager to young adult to being middle aged and then old. Also there is son, daughter, mother, father, husband, wife, partner, better half, mate, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, in-law, not to forget Gay, Jewish, Christian, Black, teacher, student, male, female, single, marine, veteran, lawyer, doctor, salesman, married and the labels keep coming almost as if the list is endless and it probably is.

I’ve been proud of many of the names and labels that I have had, and some I still have and am, whether it is Jewish, Gay, writer, weight watcher, senior citizen, etc., but there was a label I was given when I was 20 and it stayed with me most of my life and that was waiter though years later it became server. I spent quite a few years earning the acknowledgement of being a professional server which only added to fun, joy and pride I took being one. For 38 of the 48 years I worked I was a server and I still look back on those years with a positive feeling.

What brought this up was my coming across a small plastic bag of badges. As pictured the one on the top on the left was my baggage tag which I used for 10 years traveling when I lived in Memphis first as Director of Operations for the Weight Watcher’s franchise and then Founder and owner of Our Weigh. It was the best financial decade in my life.

The others are all name tags that I had to wear in restaurants I worked and they varied but, and I like to think it is because I stopped working at them, they are all now closed. In 1987 I was employee of the month at the Holiday Inn on State Road 7, just north of Commercial Boulevard, working in the restaurant and that is now closed. I, also, worked in Who Song & Larry’s, A Mexican restaurant where I had the ‘distinction’ of waiting on Marilyn Manson. It was on the corner of Federal Highway and Oakland Park Boulevard where there is now a huge parking lot for Target!!

The one with Miami Beach on it is over 60 years old as it is from my first job as a novice waiter where I got a first class education on what being a waiter involved. It was a restaurant on Collins Avenue called Piccolo’s owned by Sam and Dorothy Piccolo with help from their sons Vincent and Don. They put each waiter through a rigid training schedule including the front and back of the restaurant. It was torn down a few years ago and now a condo is on the property.

The other two are from The Crabhouse now closed and Big Louie’s, the only restaurant I worked in over the 38 years that is still opened!!

Now my labels consist of being a retiree who writes of touring Broadway musical shows, restaurants and movies and is writing my 9^th and last book, a tell all!